3U VPX FMC carrier with a Virtex-7 FPGA for radar and software-defined radio introduced by Pentek
UPPER SADDLE RIVER, N.J., 31 Jan. 2014.Pentek Inc. in Upper Saddle River, N.J., is introducing the Flexor model 5973 3U VPX FPGA mezzanine card (FMC) carrier with a Virtex-7 FPGA and model 3312 multichannel, high speed data converter FMC for radar and software-defined radio applications.
The FMC embedded computing modules combine the high performance of the Virtex-7 with the flexibility of the FMC data converter, creating a complete radar and software radio solution.
The Flexor model 5973 has a VITA 57.1 FMC site, 4 gigabytes of DDR3 SDRAM, PCI Express (Gen. 1, 2 and 3) interface to x8, optional user-configurable gigabit serial I/O, and optional LVDS connections to the FPGA for custom I/O.
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The Flexor model 5973 uses the emerging VITA 66.4 standard for half-size MT optical interconnect, providing 12 optical duplex lanes to the backplane. With the installation of a serial protocol, the VITA-66.4 interface enables gigabit backplane communications between boards independently of the PCI Express interface.
The Flexor model 3312 FMC has four 250 MHz 16-bit A/D converters and two 800 MHz 16-bit D/A converters. Its high pin-count FMC connector matches the Virtex-7 FPGA carrier, boosting performance levels and adding flexibility, Pentek officials say.
The Flexor model 5973 comes preconfigured with a suite of built-in functions for data capture, synchronization, time tagging, and formatting, all tailored and optimized for specific FMC modules such as the Flexor model 3312.
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Together, they provide an turn-key signal interface for radar, communications, or general data acquisition applications, eliminating the integration effort typically left for the user when integrating FMC and carrier, company officials say.
The Flexor model 5973 is a development and deployment platform for custom IP. Supported by the Pentek GateFlow FPGA design kit, users have access to the factory installed IP at the source level, which enables them to extend or even replace the built in functions.
The Pentek GateXpress PCI Express configuration manager supports dynamic FPGA reconfiguration though software commands as part of the runtime application to reload the FPGA, which occurs many times during development.
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For deployed environments, GateXpress enables reloading the FPGA without resetting the host system, for applications that require dynamic access to several processing IP algorithms.
The Pentek ReadyFlow board support package is available for Windows and Linux operating systems. ReadyFlow is provided as a C-callable library, the suite of initialization, control and status functions, as well as precompiled, ready-to-run-examples, accelerate application development.
The Flexor model 3312 FMC and Flexor model 5973 VPX carrier are for air-cooled, conduction-cooled, and rugged operating environments. For more information contact Pentek online at www.pentek.com.
John Keller | Editor
John Keller is editor-in-chief of Military & Aerospace Electronics magazine, which provides extensive coverage and analysis of enabling electronic and optoelectronic technologies in military, space, and commercial aviation applications. A member of the Military & Aerospace Electronics staff since the magazine's founding in 1989, Mr. Keller took over as chief editor in 1995.
